Movie night

Every night was movie night for Ben and Liam. They each brought along a couple favorite DVDs, and we would order room service and they would play in one room or the other, have some dinner, and watch a movie. They had lots of fun, and it gave one set of parents or the other the chance to have dinner overlooking the ocean, and eat slowly because not racing with a two year old.

Chilling by the pool

Ben and Liam ate a lot of hot dogs, to their delight (the hotel had a paucity of Mexican food except at breakfast, which was a shame for Ben, who loves few things better). It was fun for them to eat lunch out by the poolside (complete with a blender drink). It was uncrowded enough that the chairs by the pool could be commandeered to make a train, and no-one minded that the pole on the sun umbrella was used as a fire pole by a couple of young firemen.

Mexico!

At the beginning of January, Ben went to Cancun with his parents, his friend Liam, and Liam's parents, Tom and Mariah (their school was closed for lead abatement, and bargains were to be had). We all had a wonderful time. Ben and Liam spent as much time as possible in their swim suits in the lagoon, which was relatively shallow, without waves, and had great white sand to dig in. They made lots of use of their matching buckets.

Playing

Ben has had a great time playing with all his new toys, combined with his old ones and household furnishings, etc. The playmobil figures, who he calls "nomobile guys" are a big favorite. He enjoyed lining them up in the window, putting them all to bed in a box, and having them all ride on a firetruck, even Santa Claus, the cowboy, and the Roman soldier. Most recently they are involved in elaborate rescues, mostly of Liam's family. The grocery cart has also had heavy use. He took all the cans and other groceries from the shelves in the kitchen, brought them to the checkout (kitchen table) and then took them into the front room for his fire fighters to eat. It allowed us to reorganize our kitchen shelves, which we are now continuing to do on a regular basis. (The 'nomobile guys got a grocery cart and groceries for Christmas too, so grocery shopping happens on two scales.) Furniture also remains interesting. The coffee table makes a great train, especially combined with the wooden chairs. The arm of the couch is also a good train, while a corner of the bed is the garbage truck (Ben hangs on to the headboard to ride on the outside like a real garbageman) and his big boy bed has a tent underneath and a rocket ship on top.

Christmas

Christmas day was lots of fun. Ben had lots of good toys in his stocking, and there were lots of chocolates (Ben is a chocolate fiend; we eventually had to hide the chocolates on top of the fridge). Ben loved opening presents. He got a little worked up and cried when they were all opened, but then he was able to settle into playing with some of the many great toys he got. He got several new stuffed animals, lots of tools, blocks, lots of new playmobil guys (plus a playmobil tent to go camping), books, and a grocery cart, among other things. Ben liked helping to cook dinner, and we all enjoyed having turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and all the rest. Then we took a well deserved nap.

Baking cookies

Ben has made chocolate chip cookies several times, and peanut butter cookies too, but at Christmas he made molasses cookies with his mom. This was the first time he had made cookies that you cut out, although he's had lots of practice with playdough, so he's a pro. It was an old family recipe in a book that Jessica's Aunt Cindy compiled a long time ago. He had lots of fun rolling out the dough and cutting out gingerbread men, trees, stars, and circles. What was even more fun was that afterward Jessica made frosting and we all decorated a bunch of cookies with frosting and sprinkles. He and his mama took some to some of the neighbors', which made for a fun outing, and they liked the cookies too. Ben also left some for Santa, and he liked them too.

More projects

Ben kept us busy with projects, especially when his school was closed. He had fun making a train out of paper and some pompoms, and also liked painting frames for xmas presents.

Snow

This is shaping up to be a very snowy winter. We have had several big snows, most recently yesterday through last night. Ben likes going out in the snow and shoveling (we have a long driveway, so unfortunately there is lots of shoveling to be done). He particularly likes to be in charge of cleaning off his mama's car. In the first big snow, we went out and made snowmen, which was thrilling to Ben, who has been quite interested in them. He insisted that they needed carrot noses, so Jessica had to go up and find carrots as well as things to make the rest of the features with (hard candies and m&ms). We made a big one, and then a little one next to it, and he says they are Mama and Ben. More recent snows have been either too wet (slush city) or too cold for snowmen, but we will make some more before the winter is out. Ben also likes taking walks in the snow, especially down to the park, where he leads and makes a path for the rest of us. Today we went to the park and met Liam and his dad, Tom. Ben and Liam had a great time playing on the slide and other equipment in the tot lot (once we had dug them out). We forgot to bring a camera, though. The snowy slide was particular fun, because you slide down really fast and land, plop, at least a foot from the end of the slide, but since it's in soft snow it doesn't hurt. That particular game had to be repeated lots of times, and we had to put a new dusting of snow on each time to make sure the slide was nice and fast.

Sam and Andy's party

Sam and Andy, twins who Ben has known since they were all tiny infants (and who he hangs out with at the park in the summer and the library in the winter) had a gingerbread house decorating party and invited us all. It was great fun! There were a bunch of kids there, so much playing was done. As twins, Sam and Andy have duplicates of lots of their toys, so it made playing extra harmonious. Ben was particularly fond of their garbage trucks and their tool set-up. Decorating the gingerbread houses was also great. They had icing in various colors and just about every kind of candy you could think of to decorate the houses (or you could decorate a train if you preferred; Ben chose a house). A wonderful time was had by all.

Ballet Boy

Ben has (inexplicably) begun to do arabesques while holding onto the headboard. He then falls backwards onto the bed and laughs hysterically. His ballet poses are particularly humorous when he is just out of the bath, naked.

Christmas Tree

Moving the loom also gave us a nice spot to put our Christmas tree, the first Ben has ever had. He had fun going out to find the tree, but kept falling in love with one after another. It was great to see so many trees. We were happy with the tree, but not so much with the job they did tying it to our car; it fell off a block or two away, but luckily we weren't on a busy street and were able to get it into the back of the wagon without too much trouble, and the tree was fine. We found a box in the basement which not only had a tree stand, but also lots of ornaments, almost every one of which was unbreakable. We also made some new decorations out of metallic pipe cleaners. Ben had a wonderful time decorating the tree. He even undecorated big parts of it a few times just so he could hang the decorations again.

Playroom

While the loom has always been good fun, we decided that as it got colder it was a good idea to do some furniture rearranging. Ben and Daddoo did a project in which they turned Ben's crib into a big boy bed (he likes to pretend to sleep in it, and he did nap in it twice when Sonia from school babysat) and moved it into the bedroom. We then moved the loom into the changing/wool room, and now Ben is able to use the front room as a big playroom. It's a fun place to do a big train set up, or have a fire in the city (a model made by Andy's students), or play with lots and lots of cars. It's also much warmer that the back bedroom, which is important in the winter. (Can you tell that Ben loves his Arizona Sonora Desert Museum shirt and the color orange?)

Projects

Ben likes doing projects. He keeps both his parents very busy trying to think of projects for him to do (we now have a box full of pompoms and the like to help with this). He is very fond of doing work on Daddoo's scopes, especially if it involves lots of tools (Ben has many of his own to use, too). He also likes painting, and has been taking care of filling in spots where paint was chipped. Baking probably also counts as a project, and we never want for muffins and cookies.

Toys to sleep with

Ben is beginning to be rather interested in stuffed animals. He insisted on taking Frenchy, his new bear, grocery shopping today, and he often likes to sleep with one or two. Stuffed animals are in a category of "toys to sleep with," which is what he called the ones he got for Christmas. He believes that they are good for everyone to sleep with, so he made sure Daddoo had plenty.

Birthday Party

Ben's friend Sydney, from school, had a birthday party at Gymboree, and it was lots of fun. Lots of friends from school came, and everyone played really hard. They sang some songs and played with a parachute, and everyone had pizza and cake.

Playing with 'iam

Ben has lots of fun when he goes to play with Liam in his little red house. They tear around at high speed, take out lots of toys, and generally make a big mess. It is also fun when Liam comes to Ben's house (and Ben liked listening to Mariah tell him stories). On one trip to Liam's in December, his parents made a yummy dinner, and we brought along pumpkin ice cream, which was a big hit, especially for the boys.